The prior art already discloses what is known as vehicle-to-X communication (vehicle-2-X or V2X). This is currently in an advanced state of development and is the subject matter of various standardization methods, including at the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). Although various methods for ambient sensor data merging are also already known in the prior art, they are nevertheless still in development. Both current V2X architectures or V2X data structures or V2X data bodies, which are also known by the term Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), and ambient sensor data merging normally require a database that collects and holds information from the respectively received messages or the captured ambient sensor data. In this case, the known and standardized V2X message types are status messages (Cooperative Awareness Messages, CAMs) and event-based messages (Decentralized Environmental Notification Messages, DENMs) that are sent, e.g. periodically, by ITS communication subscribers. Furthermore, there are further, special message types in existence.
In this connection, DE 10 2010 002 092 A1, which is incorporated by reference describes data preprocessing for received vehicle-to-X messages that precedes forwarding of the messages to the associated applications and systems in the vehicle and the processing of said messages by these applications and systems. In this case, the data preprocessing can comprise checking a safety level for the message and additionally performing data reduction. The data reduction prompts information about particular objects or situations to be masked out and accordingly not forwarded and processed. Thus, information about objects that are too great a distance from the receiving vehicle or information about objects that the vehicle reaches only after a particular period of time, for example, is ignored. Similarly, a large number of objects close by with fundamentally the same behavior in relation to a situation are combined, e.g. to produce a queue. It is also possible to take exclusive account of objects that are in the envisaged channel of movement of the vehicle. This allows a distinct reduction in the volume of data that is to be processed by the individual applications.
DE 10 2008 060 231 A1, which is incorporated by reference discloses a method for selecting different data transmitted by means of vehicle-to-X communication. Using a data frame, the received data are distinguished by a data filter in the reception apparatus and forwarded to a driver assistance system or an entertainment device, for example. This allows the received data to be sorted before they are actually processed. The data are transmitted by using transmission and reception devices based on the WLAN standards 802.11a/b/g/n for 2.4 GHz or 5.9 GHz or the WLAN standard 802.11p for 5.9 GHz. In order to transmit the data redundantly and to increase the reliability of the transmission, simultaneous sending on both WLAN frequency ranges is also possible.
DE 10 2007 058 192 A1, which is incorporated by reference discloses merging of different ambient sensors, such as radar sensors, camera sensors, lidar sensors and also a telematic system, which in this case is likewise understood to be an ambient sensor. A central controller is used to check the respective non-redundantly captured information from a single sensor by analytically comparing it with information from another sensor. In this way, it may be possible to set up information redundancy, which forms the basis for safety-relevant action in the vehicle control.
The methods and apparatuses known from the prior art have disadvantages, however, insofar as the computationally involved checking of the data authenticity and the subsequent evaluation of received vehicle-to-X messages result in latencies if the vehicle-to-X messages or the data contained in the vehicle-to-X messages are intended to be merged together with ambient sensor data to produce an environment model. These latencies mean that the environment model is only ever up to date after a certain delay. Particularly if information from the environment model is used as a basis for warning the driver or even for autonomous control action, the cited latencies or delays can further accentuate an existing critical situation.